Here is the thing about racing paddocks: four-hour meetings rarely produce anything boring. As Motorsport.com reports, the DTM is seriously considering a massive overhaul of its weekend format for 2027, with intensive talks having already taken place with the teams ahead of the Sachsenring weekend.
At the absolute center of the debate is the current 20-minute qualifying format, which has faced steady criticism since 2023 due to a frustrating ten-minute period where nobody even hits the track. The proposed fix? A two-part session where the entire field first runs a ten-minute timed heat, followed immediately by a top-10 shootout. Torsten Schubert made the team's stance blunt: "We definitely have to make sure we are not sitting in the pits for ten minutes."
There is solid logic supporting the shift. In the past, shortened qualifying was a non-starter because Mercedes-AMG cars struggled to get unheated Pirelli tyres up to temperature without a lengthy heat soak process. But with the DTM spec tyre introduced this year coming up to temperature much faster, the landscape has changed. Thomas Jager, serving as sporting director of the DTM programme at AMG, gave a positive view of the change: "We need a bit more excitement and more action." Jager even pointed to the format used at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps this year, where the top four battle in a single-car time trial.
Even the daily schedule could shift. Right now, qualifying routinely happens between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m., long before the grandstands fill up. German TV partner ProSieben reportedly favors moving qualifying back so it wraps up just half an hour before the race start—an idea previously floated three years ago.
Race formats are under the microscope too. Most stakeholders agree that introducing a second mandatory stop on Saturdays—just like the one that stirred up Sunday races since 2025—is on the table, provided the pitstop window is widened to cut down on pitlane chaos. To stop teams from deliberately parking cars on Saturdays to hoard tyres for Sunday, discussions touched on awarding one point for every lap completed, though crash damage concerns loom large over that idea. A more probable compromise gives drivers a fourth set of tyres at all weekend rounds, stepping up from the three sets used at half the races in 2026.
Then there is the thorny issue of torque sensors, which are already standard across the World Endurance Championship WEC and the US-based IMSA Sportscar Championship to measure wheel power directly and keep Balance of Performance cheating in check. High costs make them controversial, however. Schubert pushed back against adding more tech, noting that numerous sensors were already made mandatory this season, suggesting instead to award points starting from free practice so everyone shows their true pace immediately. For now, ADAC has to sort through the notes and build a formal proposal.
